When the smoke cleared from quick-draw Mike Zigomanis going 5-for-5 on faceoffs this past Saturday night, there was a new sheriff in Dot City.

Like Tim Brent, Zigomanis was not listed among the main candidates to play centre, but when he appeared in the dress rehearsal roster against Detroit, played well individually and with burly fourth-line wingers Colton Orr and Mike Brown, management’s plan to give the league-worst penalty kill more help was spelled out.

“He’s always been one of the best faceoff men in the league,” coach Ron Wilson said on Wednesay. “He knows he’ll get six, seven, eight or it could be 10 minutes (of game time), depending on if we’re killing a lot of penalties. But he’s comfortable with that. He wants to do that — period — and that’s why he is in the lineup.”

Zigomanis was credited with being on Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup team in 2009, but had suffered season-ending shoulder surgery and spent last year split between Sweden and the AHL Marlies.

“Faceoffs and penalty killing are going to be what I’m called upon to do and I’m ready,” the 29-year-old Scarborough native said.

But now he’ll have to scrounge up extra seats for Thursday’s game against Montreal.

“I played my second NHL game here back in 2002 (for Carolina) and got 12 tickets,” Zigomanis recalled. “That was a lot of money at the time and I didn’t think about it until I got my Visa bill. But most people know they don’t hand us a whole roll of free tickets and that t